Edgewood woman charged with murder after domestic shooting

MATT BUTTON | AEGIS STAFF / Baltimore Sun Media Group

Crime scene tape is balled up in front of a home on Mahonia Way in Edgewood where police say a woman fatally shot her 37-year-old boyfriend Monday night. Tanasha E. Siena, 35, is charged with first degree murder and other crimes in the death of George S. Moore.

Crime scene tape is balled up in front of a home on Mahonia Way in Edgewood where police say a woman fatally shot her 37-year-old boyfriend Monday night. Tanasha E. Siena, 35, is charged with first degree murder and other crimes in the death of George S. Moore. (MATT BUTTON | AEGIS STAFF / Baltimore Sun Media Group)

DAVID ANDERSON, daanderson@baltsun.com

Police charged an Edgewood woman with murder after she fatally shot her boyfriend Monday night.

Tanasha E. Siena, 34, of the 3100 block of Mahonia Way, called 911 and told dispatchers she shot George S. Moore, 37, who lived with her, according to a Harford County Sheriff's Office news release issued Tuesday.

She also told dispatchers that Moore had attacked her, the release states.

According to the Sheriff's Office, deputies arrived shortly before 8 p.m. Monday at the residence on Mahonia Way. They found Moore in a bedroom on the second floor of the house. He had been shot in the head and "upper body" and he was pronounced dead at the scene.

Siena told deputies she had been hurt when Mr. Moore attacked her, the news release continued. She was taken via a Joppa-Magnolia Volunteer Fire Company ambulance to University of Maryland Upper Chesapeake Medical Center in Bel Air with bruises and other "minor injuries," the Sheriff's Office said.

Siena was released from the hospital after a few hours. Sheriff's Office detectives interviewed her later and charged her with first and second-degree murder, first-degree assault and using a handgun while committing a felony.

Sheriff's Office spokesman Edward Hopkins said he could not comment further on the incident.

Siena was initially held on no bond. During a bail review hearing in Harford County District Court Tuesday afternoon, however, Judge Mimi Cooper reduced Siena's bail to $250,000.

Several lawyers from the Office of the Public Defender, including Thomas Ashwell, Howard Greenberg and Timothy Bahr, were in court on Siena's behalf.

Bahr told the judge Siena has two children, ages 14 and 3, has lived in Harford County for about 10 years and was raised in a military family. He noted Siena graduated from a high school in Hawaii.

Appearing in court via closed circuit television from the detention center, Siena had dark circles under both of her eyes, and it appeared that her right eye was swollen.

Assistant State's Attorney Alison Healey, supervisor of the State's Attorney's Office's Domestic Violence Unit, said in court that the victim was lying on the bed when he was shot.

She said detectives interviewed Siena and one of her children at the scene and the child had said that prior to the shooting, Siena had asked that child to take the other child out of the home for about 30 to 45 minutes.

"This is an ongoing investigation, and this is extremely new," Healey said.

Healey declined to comment on the case following the hearing, citing the open investigation, nor would any of the public defenders comment.

According to the statement of charges filed with the District Court, one of Siena's children told detectives that Siena and Mr. Moore were arguing before the call to 911 was placed.

Investigators found a silver .380 caliber semiautomatic handgun in the house, according to the statement of charges.

Siena told detectives in an interview after she left the hospital that she and Mr. Moore physically fought, according to the statement of charges. She then took a handgun from dresser and shot him several times, according to the statement of charges.

Siena does not have any prior Maryland arrests or convictions, according to online court records.

Siena has a preliminary hearing scheduled for July 1 in District Court.